Think of the workforce development system
as similar to the transportation system. At
the highest level, both function as connectors
between two points. Roads and highways
help take commuters from location A to
location B. The workforce development
system helps workers transition from
education to job A, or from job A to job B.

Both are expansive infrastructures best
designed with a solid understanding of where
people are coming from and going to.

In the case of workforce development,
knowing where and how people are moving
and landing in the workforce should drive
investments and policy decisions to best
support workers, students and employers.

Without sound data, the workforce development system responds to what anecdotal
information is available and risks bolstering,
for example, a pipeline of workers to a job
flooded with applicants or a training program
inadequate for a particular career.

To carry the analogy forward, you wouldn’t
design a highway system off of public comment
alone.It takes viable, comprehensive data to help
move people efficiently and invest accordingly in
the needs of the future.

Dynamics of the labor market are ever
changing. Take, for example, the growing ‘gig’
economy, where workers do not have traditional
employment relationships. Another example
is employers shifting focus from on-the-job
training to educational institutions teaching
specific skills. To make important public
policy or program decisions, it’s important to
understand changing workforce trends.

It’s also important to know outcomes. • Are graduates getting work intheir field of study?

• Do wages in an occupation
justify taking on student debt?

• Do certain skills transfer between
industries, based on evidence of
workers transitioning?

• Is there a shortage of skills in an industry
or other factors that keep qualified candidates from applying or getting hired?

We begin to fill the story in using various Workforceand Labor Market Information (WLMI) sourcessuch as state and federal surveys of businesses andhouseholds, administrative records (UnemploymentInsurance wage records, education records, etc.)and private on-line job posting sites. Each of thecurrent methods for collecting information comeswith strengths and shortcomings. The national Workforce Information AdvisoryCouncil (WIAC), which I serve as the only laborrepresentative, recently published an informa-tional report summarizing the importance ofcurrent and improved WLMI to the workforcedevelopment system and participants in the labormarket. In the future, the Council will makespecific recommendations to the U.S. Secretaryof Labor to improve the WLMI system.

The WIAC identified the following groups ofusers of workforce data:• job seekers, students, workers• businesses• educators, counselors, training providers• government policymakers and plannersI’ll admit to being in the narrow universe thatactually follows the U.S. Census and Bureau ofLabor Statistics on social media. Most ‘users,’however, likely don’t spend too much timethinking about how career indicators in theireveryday lives tie to WLMI. Yet, it regularly comesthrough in conversations about “in-demand” jobs,the gig economy, weak wage growth, tighteningunemployment or what industries are attractingyounger workers, to name a few frequent topics. Those sitting on workforce developmentcouncils, advisory boards to community andtechnical colleges or using Trade AdjustmentAssistance or other reemployment support likelytouch WLMI more directly. Specific demands are made of these boards andprograms, which are key parts of the workforcedevelopment system, to allocate funds in ways thatensure prepared workers are connected to availablejobs. These should be quality jobs that support life-long career growth.

Preservation andexpansion is essential

A major push and pull in the labor-market-infor-mation world is between accurate and dynamic.
More than any other time, we expect real-time
information that updates rapidly. Some of the
strongest WLMI data takes years to process. We
also expect information to be detailed and localized.
However, limited resources prevent key data sources
from drilling down to that level.
There are also glaring data gaps in common places
for understanding the workforce. A key issue
for SPEEA has been enhancing Unemployment
Insurance (UI) wage records, which are filed
quarterly by employers for all workers eligible
for UI if laid off. This is a foundation for
longitudinal workforce information but lacks
any details about occupations. We would have
a much stronger sense of what skills are available
and where these skills are in the workforce with
the addition of occupation information.

Anecdotes aren’t adequate for shaping public
policy or steering life decisions, especially in a
time when workers feel particularly uncertain
about their careers and students are saddled
with unprecedented student debt. That’s why
maintaining current data sources and expanding
how we collect data and what we know about
the workforce is essential.

The views expressed in this article reflect the positions of
SPEEA and do not represent the WIAC. For more information
about WIAC’s efforts, go to www.doleta.gov/wioa/wiac.

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